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The Inventor

I have a bit left in "The Inventor," but I'm ready to say I love this movie. Highlights so far:

-A story is different from data. A good narrative has an emotional component. When you appeal to people's emotions, you can be very seductive. You don't need to point to numbers. Elizabeth Holmes was an extraordinary storyteller. She would trot out the tale of her uncle, dead too soon from cancer, and people would want to open their wallets for her.

-People find it easy to lie if they believe they're supporting a good cause. A thing I enjoyed was this: A certain economist had people roll dice. If you rolled, you would have to commit to choosing the top or bottom of your roll. ("It landed on a 2, but I'm committed to the top of the roll, a 5....so I get 5 dollars." "It landed on a 3, and I'm committed to the bottom of the roll, so I get 3 dollars.") People would freely lie if the difference was between 6 and 1, and then they would tell the truth if the difference was between 3 and 4 (and they were just losing 1 dollar). That bit of 3 vs. 4 truth-telling seemed to have a rationalizing, conscience-soothing quality.

A lie detector test would detect the lie. The machine would recognize a certain tension--between I want more money and I know it's wrong. But, if you told the subject, you're donating your money to a charity, then the lying would continue, and the lie detector test would stop working. Why? Because the conscience is at ease. I'm lying for a good cause, so it's not really lying. This is likely the kind of mentality that allowed Elizabeth Holmes to commit the brutal acts that she committed.

-Another item this documentary has (and it's an item that would have enriched "Bad Blood") is: the Thomas Edison story. Edison routinely lied. He inflated claims. He said he could deliver things he couldn't deliver. (He would fall years behind schedule.) So that's the kind of culture Elizabeth Holmes believed she was a part of. (She called her machine "the Edison.") The problem is that Edison's lightbulb lie didn't mean people would potentially die. Elizabeth Holmes's lies *did* put lives at stake. I love "The Inventor" because it has a Janet Malcolm-ish gift for getting us to look at old things in a new way. Thomas Edison? He couldn't be a huckster! But indeed he was. Bill Clinton? He can't have been duped by a wily nineteen year old! But: Think again.

I'd recommend "The Inventor"--even more ardently than "Bad Blood"--because it's full of drama and wonder, and also because it allows you to see, up-close, some of the good guys who were only brief, sketchy figures in "Bad Blood."
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